Ivan's Navigation Nightmare!

As you may know, Ivan had been away on a decorating job in Cornwall and was planning on riding the whole 270 miles back in ONE day. Things did not go to plan!

Ivan, Glad To Be Back On The Chaingang!

As he set off  from Bude following a paper map, the weather was dry and his progress was good for the first 20 miles. At some point he realised he was lost and had no idea where he was. hoping to identify a location from the map  he kept going for the next 20 miles enjoying a one and a half mile decent down an impressive hill before deciding he really should ask someone for directions. A couple of newspaper delivery girls informed him he was totally off the map and was going in completely the wrong direction, there was no other option except to cycle 20 miles back the way he come, including going back up the long hill. Finally back on the correct route, Ivan continued on his journey and plodded on mile after mile. By now the rain was falling steadily. The route was all on main roads and Ivan was terrified of being hit by one of the many cars that were passing  a foot or so from his head at 60 mph. He tried not to think about the traffic and  carried on but once more managed to get himself lost , this resulted in another wasted 20 miles. On reaching Honiton his knee was giving him all sorts of bother , he couldn't ride at more than 10 miles per hour and was hobbling like an old man whenever he tried walking to ease his knee. He struggled on for another 20 miles, until having reached the impressive total mileage of 170 miles he had to admit defeat and phoned his cousin for a lift to the nearest train station. Finally able to relax while sitting there watching the countryside flash past Ivan had a sort of epiphany and has come to the conclusion that its pointless doing these endlessly long rides, there is more fun to be had just do shorter distances.